As I’ve been mentioning in Law Librarians News it really is rather dull at the moment in the world of legal publishing — from the outside anyway.

You will all know Lexis have dumped Matthew Bender and that’s really the only big story of the last month. Both Lexis and Westlaw have done their usual slew of Joint Ventures, Mergers and Buyouts in the world of legal technology to boost ever decreasing revenues and as late as mid March press departments at both companies were in silent mode as the number crunchers and management run around furiously creating end of Q.1 figures for boards, MD’s and investors that are designed to ensure that their jobs last into quarters 2 & 3 of 2013.

In the meantime over at House of Butter we’ve reported the odd mildly interesting story. If you do decide to pop over don’t get too excited in advance as the stories aren’t exactly scoops of the century.

However, I do have a new development at Practice Source to tell you about though. Some of you will be aware we also write a blog ALE (Australian Legal Eye) that aims to keep our readers up to date with what’s going on in the Asia legal market / industry . We’ve now spun off a simple free fortnightly HTML newsletter that will keep readers up to date with the latest developments in the various Asian legal markets. If you’d like to subscribe just pop over to www.practicesorce.com and sign up for the newsletter. The form is in the right hand margin of the entry page

Comments

The Matthew Bender news was sad but perhaps confusing, the indication from the parent company being that it has decided to close this location at the end of 2014. The business operations supported in Albany will be integrated into their other U.S. locations. Apparently, the Albany move will take place over the next two years and will include changes for roles based there.

At the same time, LexisNexis has acquired 55 analytical titles from Oxford University Press U.S. Law Division and will integrate them into the Matthew Bender portfolio of legal products. 36 Intellectual Property titles highlight the portfolio. This would indicate support for the brand and its product line.

I hope that a friend and former Bender alumnus won’t mind me borrowing his comments: “With the news of the closure of the Albany office, there are no more “Matthew Bender” locations. This was where the company started and was the last to be focused on Bender product and customers. There were very dedicated folks there, and proud of the MB brand. It was really a life-changing event to have found my way into that company when I did. It was a great ride”.